Mental Health Minute: Athletes and injuries

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — It’s getting late in the fall sports season, and unfortunately, many athletes from high school to the pros deal with injuries and while the physical effects are oftentimes obvious, the mental toll it can take on an athlete is a completely different ballgame. More in this week’s mental health minute.

This fall high school sports season, there has already been a handful of injuries among our area athletes. While these all range in severity from season-ending to just a strain or sprain, the mental effects of missing out on a sports season, no matter the amount of time, can be difficult for some athletes.

“In those moments, a lot of the time, I think they feel very alone, they feel so isolated. Even if their mom or their dad or their coach is like, ‘Oh, you’re okay,’ they still are away from the team. And oftentimes they’re over here with me because that’s just the person that’s there to take care of them, so I try really hard to let them know that we are a team together,” said Seth Koyle, the athletic trainer at Minico High School.

Koyle has seen a wide range of injuries in his six years with the school, and even more at his job with Intermountain Healthcare. Koyle says that while the physical aspects of an injury are one thing, the mental side-especially for seniors who are in their final high school season-can change in an instant when injuries strike.

“Those are the hardest ones, genuinely truly, working with those athletes that have had those traumatic injuries those are the hardest ones because they have to go through and figure out who they are now because they have this identity of I’m this type of a person and they have this thing and it’s taken away from them so suddenly. And it’s very hard on these athletes,” Koyle added.

While Koyle deals with helping athletes improve in the physical on the day-to-day and says he loves and is passionate about what he does, that doesn’t mean everyday is easy on him mentally and there are times where the right thing to do is the hardest thing.

“There are times where I have to make that difficult decision if someone does have the injury and I have to tell them no, and that’s genuinely hard on me, I never want to tell a kid that they can’t play because that’s what they love, but there’s times where that’s just the right thing to do,” Koyle said.

If you know an athlete who is injured and has to miss time-whether its days, weeks or months-consider reaching out to them to make sure that they are doing okay and to remind them that they aren’t going through it alone.